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Thomas and Friends
Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (also referred to as Thomas & Friends or Thomas the Tank Engine) is a British children's television series. It had its first broadcast on the ITV network in 1984. It is based on The Railway Series of books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry. Plot These books follow the adventures of a group of anthropomorphised locomotives and road vehicles who live on the fictional Island of Sodor. The books were based on stories Wilbert told to entertain his son, Christopher, during his recovery from measles. Many of the stories from the first four series are based on events from Awdry's personal experiences. Why It Rocks # The earlier episodes adapt The Railway Series books as well, and the original stories are also good to watch (for example: Thomas and Bertie). # The idea of talking trains is really cool and realistic (as you can tell by The Railway Series). # There's a large variety of engines, such as Thomas (of course), Gordon, James, Percy, Daisy, Henry, Toby, Edward, Duck, Rosie, Emily, Nia, Rebecca, Spencer, Donald and Douglas, Oliver, Stanley and the list goes on. # The models in the model era are very well done as they look very realistic. # The Really Useful Around the World videos are pretty interesting and fun to watch, maybe these videos would be more interesting if they were adapted to Railway Series stories. # Well-done narration. Not to mention, in the model era, the first narrator was none other than the former drummer of The Beatles, 'Ringo Starr! '''The most talented actor of the entire series. #George Carlin, like Ringo, has the best narration in the classic era out of every narrator. Even his voices for the listed characters really show how talented and enthusiastic he is. #*Bill and Ben #*Gordon #*James #*Sir Topham Hatt #*Donald and Douglas #*Trevor #*Duncan #*Toad #*Tom Tipper #*Daisy # Likable main protagonist (except in Seasons 12-16 where he got flanderized all thanks to you know who). # All of the theme songs from every season are catchy. # There are not many bad movies in this franchise. # Both the US dub and the UK dub are equally good. #The Japanese dub is as great and superior as the UK and US dubs. # The animation in Seasons 13-16 is decent, despite not aging well. However, the animation from Season 17 onwards is far superior. # It even spawned a theatrical movie and a ton of Direct-to-DVD movies (though some of them weren't well-received by both fans and critics alike). # The characters are based off actual railway locomotives and most of the episodes were based on real life events. # The songs are well-done and catchy, such as "Thomas You're the Leader", "James the Really Splendid Engine", "Rules and Regulations", "Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining", "Percy's Seaside Trip", "Come For the Ride", "The Island Song", "Night Train", "Accidents Will Happen", "The Snow Song", "Winter Wonderland", "Down by the Docks", "The Red Balloon", "Hear the Engines Coming", "Monsters Everywhere", "Engine Roll Call", "We Make a Team Together", "That's What Friends Are For", "Will You Won't You", "Set Friendship in Motion", "Streamlining", "You Can Only Be You", "The Hottest Place in Town", "Our Tale of the Brave", "Never Overlook A Little Engine", "Let's Be Brave", "Somebody Has to Be the Favorite", "Really Useful Engine", "All The Girls Around the World", "Thomas' Anthem", "The Most Important Thing Is Being Friends", "I Want to Go Home", "On a Journey Today", "Roll Along", "Go Go Thomas" and the list goes on. # The Thomas Creator Collective was as good as from its own depiction. # The crashes are absolutely epic. # Jam Filled Entertainment did a good job on Thomas and Friends when Season 21 came out (despite Arc animating eight episodes for said season prior to their bankruptcy). # It's not afraid to be mature and have dark themes. The most common example of a dark episode is ''Granpuff, where Duke tells the story of an engine named Smudger who misbehaved and often rolled off the rails and then got turned into a generator for life. Then, due to no one wanting him, Duke gets buried in a shed. It's really adult and depressing. Haunted Henry was also a darker episode of the show because of the spooky atmosphere. # Many good morals that kids can learn, such as "Be Patient", "Never trust toxic people", "Don't judge others from their looks/appearances", "Be careful what you wish for", "Work together", "Trust others", "Be honest", "Be yourself" and "Learn from your mistakes". # Has so many good/excellent episodes, such as "Thomas Gets Tricked"/"Thomas and Gordon", "Percy's Promise", "Thomas Saves the Day" (Season 1)/"Thomas & The Breakdown Train", "Duck and the Slip Coaches", "Henry to the Rescue"/"Edward, Gordon and Henry", "Thomas and the Jet Engine", "Percy's Chocolate Crunch", "Rusty and the Boulder", "Edward's Exploit", "Twin Trouble", "Wish You Were Here", "Haunted Henry", "Rusty to the Rescue", "Saved from Scrap", "Old Iron", "Gordon Takes a Tumble", "Thomas to the Rescue", "Love Me Tender", "Forever and Ever", "Thomas and Stepney", "James and the Red Balloon", "Trust Thomas", "Emily's New Coaches", "Train Stops Play", "Duncan Gets Spooked", "Special Funnel", "Kevin's Cranky Friend", "Foolish Freight Cars"/"Troublesome Trucks", "What Rebecca Does", "Edward Helps Out"/"Edward and Gordon", "Mucking About", "Thomas Comes to Breakfast", "Pouty James", "Terence the Tractor"/"Thomas, Terence and the Snow", "A Big Day for Thomas"/"Thomas' Train", "Free the Roads", "Batucada", "Make Someone Happy", "Chucklesome Trucks", "Rosie is Red", "No Help At All", "Jack Frost", "Goodbye Sir Topham Hatt"/"Goodbye Fat Controller", "Thomas' New Trucks", "Best Friends", "Thomas and the Storyteller", "James the Second Best", "An Engine of Many Colors", "Cranky at the End of the Line", "Hooray for Thomas"/"Three Cheers for Thomas", "Duncan and the Grumpy Passenger" and the list goes on. Bad Qualities # The series was hit hard with seasonal rot during Seasons 12-16. Similar to Seasons 6-8 of SpongeBob SquarePants, these seasons are loaded with bad episodes, like "Wonky Whistle" (the worst episode of the series), "Happy Hiro", "Bust My Buffers!", "Pingy Pongy Pick Up", "Saved You!", "Don't Go Back", "Splish Splash Splosh", "Big Belle", "Fiery Flynn", "Ho Ho Snowman", "Push Me, Pull You", "Up, Up and Away", "Let It Snow", "Sodor Surprise Day", "Duncan and the Hot Air Ballon", "Mountain Marvel", "Rosie's Carnival Special"/"Rosie's Funfair Special", "The Lion of Sodor", "Flash Bang Wallop!", "The Man in the Hills", "James to the Rescue", "Percy and the Monster of Brendam", "Buzzy Bees", "Henry Gets It Wrong", "Steamy Sodor", "Race to the Rescue", "Percy's New Friends" and the list goes on. # There's even a handful of bad episodes before and after the season rot, such as "Middle Engine", "Edward Strikes Out", "Which Way Now?", "Thomas and the New Engine", "Panicky Percy", "What's the Matter with Henry?", "Wharf and Peace", "Follow that Flour", "Too Loud, Thomas!", "The Old Bride"/"The Old Iron Bridge", "Thomas and the Big Bang", "The Other Side of the Mountain", "Who's Geoffrey?", "Rheneas and the Roller Coaster", "Three Steam Engines Gruff", "Topped Off Thomas", "Edward and the Mail", "Don't Be Silly, Billy", "Thomas Makes a Mistake", "Skarloey the Brave", "Toby Feels Left Out", "Henry and the Wishing Tree", "Apology Impossible" (depending on your view), "The Magic Lamp" and so on. # Michael Brandon's narrations were poorly treated. Even if Brandon himself has some bad spots to his narration, he enjoyed his job nonetheless. # The earlier episodes have tons of goofs. # Some characters (those who never appeared in the Railway Series, the show's book origin series) have received a lot of negative feedback, such as Billy, Charlie, Bash, Dash, Ferdinand, Vinnie, etc., for either being extremly annoying or having unlikable personalities. # Alec Baldwin's narration for Season 6 was not well received because of it being bland and lacking enthusiasm. Sure, Alec Baldwin did some good voices for some of the characters, such as Elizabeth, Harvey and Salty, but that was about it. # Speaking of Season 6 (while great), it is arguably one of the weakest seasons in the classic era as it has poor narration from Alec Baldwin (as mentioned in Reason #6) and dull and washed out camera quality. # Some of the engine's faces in the model era can end up cringe inducing. # Misty Island Rescue and Day Of The Diesels are confusing for some audiences. # The engines bouncing in Season 22 onwards is too cartoony for Thomas & Friends, since said show is supposed to focus on realism. Trivia *It first aired on PBS as a segment on Shining Time Station. Then it premiered on PBS in 2004 as a standalone program. It aired on PBS until 2017. Now it airs on Nickelodeon as of the special 45 minute length episode, "The Adventure Begins". *The First Railway Series book, Three Railway Engines was published on George Carlin's eighth birthday in 1945. *Before narrating Ringo originally declined narrating the series since he hadn't read any of the Railway Series books at that time. However, after reading the books, he decided to narrate the series. *George Carlin was the choice for being the narrator of the series by Kenn Viselman, the head marketing for the franchise of Thomas & Friends, Tots TV, and Teletubbies. *According to Britt Allcroft, she chose Ringo as the narrator after hearing his voice on television and thought children would relate to him. At first, Allcroft declined the fact he was chosen because of his Beatles fame, since she was not a fan of the band at the time. *After Ringo Starr left the show in 1989/1990 (both British and American versions) to continue and focus more on his music career, Ringo stated in an interview following his departure that Thomas would always have a special place in his heart, and that he admits he is proud to be apart of Thomas' world. *Ringo Starr originally declined narrating the series since he did not read any of the Railway Series books at that time. However, after reading the books, he decided to narrate the series. He also recorded narration for the Ladybird audio books. *On the BBC game show "Pointless", when asked who took over narrating the UK version of the series from Starr in 1991, four out of the one-hundred people remembered that it was Michael Angelis. *Ringo Starr recorded the narration for the first season in eight days. That includes re-doing four episodes due to the tone of his voice. *The show is extremely popular in Japan due to trains being one of the most common ways to travel in the aforementioned country and many of the show's merchandise is exclusive to the Japanese market, in fact, Fuji TV, a popular Japanese TV network which aired the program, helped co-producing the show's 3rd season and it even got 3 crossovers with a Japanese children's program named Ponkickies. *Alec Baldwin is the last narrator to play as Mr. Conductor. *Alec Baldwin is the first narrator to not narrate any Railway Series story adaptations. *While Carlin usually insulted most of the shows that he did attend playing the roles in, he usually spoke very fondly of both Shining Time Station and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, even in some of his stand-up comedy routines. In an interview on "TV Legends" conducted shortly before his death, he explained that he signed on to both shows so that people could see a different side of him (meaning a good side where he isn't using vulgar language all the time). ** In technicality, George Carlin is the first official American Thomas narrator after Ringo Starr's narrations were done. * Due to different societal norms in the United States, the Fat Controller is always referred to by his real name, "Sir Topham Hatt". Category:Cartoons Category:British Shows Category:Shows That Went Downhill Category:Kids' Shows Category:Edutainment Shows Category:Preschool shows Category:Preschool TV Shows Category:Niche Audience Shows Category:1980s Programs Category:1990s program Category:2000's Programs Category:2010's Programs Category:HIT Enterainment